Do you know who said, “There's a sucker born every minute”? Most people respond with, “It was P.T. Barnum” Yet if you do some historical digging, you’ll find out that Barnum NEVER said the infamous quote most attributed to him. It wasn’t until I read “There’s a Customer Born Every Minute: P.T. Barnum's Secrets to Business Success” by Joe Vitale that I was set straight. Vitale points out that nobody has been able to directly attribute the “sucker” quote to Barnum. You won’t find the quote in any of Barnum’s writing or speeches. It was also pointed out that the “sucker” quote was out of character with Barnum’s personal and business beliefs.

So where did the quote come from? The quote most likely came from one of Barnum’s competitors. Read more about the “There's a sucker born every minute” misquote over at HistoryBuff.com. I tripled checked the misquote over the telephone with Kathleen Maher, Executive Director, of The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She empathatically insisted there is no evidence to support the supposed "Sucker" quote.

Staged Fights Yes, Barnum did believe in hyping the heck out of his events. He even went so far as to stage fights during live performances. But Barnum also realized that the customer was always in charge. If the customer felt that Barnum wasn’t able to deliver on his fantastic promises, they wouldn’t pay up or find something else to do. No event can afford to treat their attendees like suckers. 150 Years Later – You Have Just One ShotOver one hundred and fifty years later, not much has changed in terms of the fundamentals of marketing and promoting events. Today you have just one shot to impress your customer with your event. Delivering an extraordinary experience is especially crucial to recurring events. If you don’t deliver a great event experience, people will find other things to do. Don't forget the competition! Talented people are creating new events to compete with your event all the time. Don’t count on the competition slowing down (even during times of economic hardship). Certain segments of the event industry have actually flourished during economic crisis. It is in your best interest to focus intently on creating events that leave your attendees satiated beyond belief. You want your attendees leaving your event saying “That was amazing – I want to do it again.”

Focus on the Customer, Not the SuckerThe title of Joe Vitale's book "There’s a Customer Born Every Minute" sums up the mindset of the most successful event promoters and marketers. There are new customers coming into your marketplace all the time. In order for your event to thrive, you must find more effective ways to market and promote your even, plus execute a truly great event.

Below is a collection of articles outlining some of Barnum's event promotion strategies that you can integrate into the marketing of your event.

Is getting your company or event featured in an article enough to drive traffic to your web site? Probably not. Too many business people jump up and down with unbridled enthusiasm because they were featured in their local media. I call it the “Hey, look at us!” syndrome. Don’t get me wrong, publicity is great – especially free publicity. But you need to leverage publicity the right way. Let me put it to you this way . . . The end result of publicity is more important than the actual publicity itself. You should constantly ask yourself, "What is this publicity going to do for us?"

Getting Featured Online and OffLast week a client was featured in both the online and offline versions of our local newspaper. The feature article was very positive and included the client’s web address (but not as an active link online). According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations the local newspaper has a daily circulation of 124,987. Online the paper’s web site has an estimated 230,000 visitors per month according to Quantcast.com. With the previous numbers one would think having your web address included in a positive article would generate a decent web traffic burst. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. According to Google Analytics the client’s web site received just 10 extra visitors per day when the article was featured. Getting your name in the paper these days simply isn’t enough. You need to think about how your publicity is going to benefit you.

Realty – Most Web Users are Getting LazierIt’s important to remember that the online attention span of the typical web users is getting shorter and shorter. If a web site doesn’t load in a few second or it isn’t easy to understand and navigate, the user usually bolts to a competitor’s web site. It's important to always keep in mind the User Attention Span. Just because your web address is included in an article, online or off, doesn’t mean people will visit your site. Remember that your consumers are bombarded with way too much advertising, yet still want instant gratification. You can't expect them to do something like copy and paste a web address from an article into the address bar. Focus on leading the user down a given path.

Make It Easy to Click on Your AddressThere are two simple things you can do to get more way more leverage from your web address in the media. First, make sure any online reference to your web address includes an actual HTML link to your site. If you find an article online about your event or company that doesn’t include an actual link, get in contact with the publication immediately. A friendly telephone call can go a long way. For sake of immediacy, don't try to rely on email. Correcting media references offline is a little more difficult. Print is near impossible to change after the ink dries. Be proactive with print publications. Your best bet is to ask the publication to finish the article with “For more information about XYZ, please visit the XYZ web site: XYZ.com.” That one sentence can go a long way to driving tons of free traffic to your web site. In order to get publicity to work, you need to make it easy and compelling for people to find out more about you. A well positioned web address helps tremendously.

Check out the articles below for additional information on getting the most from free publicity.